The Caged Bird
by Blue Seidr
Summary: Why does the caged bird sing? Rated T for safety. Oneshot.


**Hi! This is my first shot at an angst oneshot, so go easy on me. This was inspired by the poem I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (as you can tell by the excerpt below) and all the angsty Linkin Park songs I've been listening to. I hope you like it.**

* * *

_The caged bird sings_

_with a fearful trill_

_of things unknown_

_but longed for still_

_and his tune is heard_

_on the distant hill_

_for the caged bird _

_sings of freedom._

\- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

* * *

Leonardo woke. He didn't open his eyes immediately, praying that since he had last seen his surroundings something had changed for the better. That, perhaps, his brothers had come to rescue him, like they had in his dreams. Or that his entire experience was a dream, and he was waking to his room, where he could shake the nightmare off.

He prayed his heavy lids open, and a stone wall was all that he saw. He bit back a bitter sigh. Nothing had changed. He had not had a nightmare. He was living in one.

Leo shifted, wincing at the pain in his right leg. And the pain in his right arm. Both were maimed with large open cuts that sent a flame of pain throughout his body when he dared to move them. They were not the only injuries, simply the ones that hurt the most. Leo's arms and legs covered with dried blood, cuts, bruises, and welts from various instruments of torture. His shell had cracked on the lid, like Raph's. The soles of his feet and the palms of his hands were red with burns, and 3 parallel slashes ran from the left side of his head to his chin. In short, he was beat up. Battered, burned, weathered, and bruised.

He was mask-less. Someone had taken it from him at some point, along with everything else he wore, even the training tape he wore. He wished that they had at least left him that, so he could bandage his wounds, to at least try to prevent infection. But his tormentors were thorough, leaving him with nothing. In his weakened state and without any thing at all on his body, he felt bare and vulnerable. Exactly as he knew his captors wanted him to feel.

Leo shifted a bit more, now having a purpose. He scuttled along the floor (in a way reminiscent of a crab) to the door of his cell and glanced through the bars. Guards stood on either side of his door, clad in black, the Foot symbol on both shoulders. One guard looked down at him, and Leo stared calmly back. Neither said a word. Leo knew no mercy or information would slip through the guards lips. Saki did not have merciful men in his army. It was merely routine to check out the guards on each waking. A few seconds more of staring and the guard's hand slipped to his sword hilt in warning. Leo nodded in acknowledgement of the not so subtle hint, and scooted back to his original position.

It wasn't a large cell. It was more of a small walk in closet. It was about 5 feet long and 4 feet wide, with a ceiling perhaps 8 feet high. The walls were stone, like cinder blocks. The floor was uneven cobblestone that made sitting a pain, literally. There were no windows, and no lights or flames. The only reason Leo could see at all was the light from the torches that lit the hallway outside his cell. The fires cast just enough light to see the first half of his cell. The back half was cloaked in shadows, and Leo could just barely see the other wall. The cell smelled as well. He was never let out, ever, not even for torturing for information. The smell was a mixture of his blood, sweat, and the far corner of his cell that served as a bathroom.

Leo gently laid his head back against the cool wall for a second of rest, then leaned forward again. He shuffled across to the other side of the cell, careful to stay on the side of the light. He raised his hands, and felt a row of scratches in the stone. Tally marks. He counted them, even though he already knew how many there were. Twenty. He had woken up in that cell twenty times. He ran his hand along the floor of the cell, and found the tiny piece of stone he had discovered on his first "day". He raised it up, and used in to scratch another mark into the wall. Twenty-one.

Leo swallowed a sob that threatened to break out, and moved back to his rest area. He had divided the entire cell into areas. The area closest to the door was his lookout area. The area that fringed the dark half of the cell, on the left side, was his rest area. The edge of the light on the right side was his counting area. The dark half was divided into two areas. The space on the right was his bathroom. The space on the right was where he hid rations. Every time he received food or water, he would consume half, then save the rest to ration out until his next feeding. Better to be safe than sorry, and he had already been thankful that he did so.

Leo reached a hand out, and grabbed a water bottle. He held it up into the light, and saw he had about a quarter of the bottle left. He took a slow sip, and was tempted to drink more, but logically placed the cap back on, tucking the bottle back into the shadows. He toyed with eating one of his slices of bread, but he only had a couple left, and he had eaten one yesterday. No. Better to wait, at least until later that day. Maybe he would get more food soon. Saki couldn't let the turtle die, not when the information he had remained locked inside.

Leo cleared his throat, testing his voice. He still had it, despite the lack of water. A melody occurred to him, and he began to hum. He loved music. Back at home, in the Lair, he would often spend hours listening to music of all genres. When he trained, when he chilled, whenever he could, he would pop in the earbuds on his T-pod and crank up the volume.

The guard who had looked at him earlier did so again at the sound of him humming, cocking his masked head. Leo ignored him, and continued to hum, staring ahead, not really seeing.

"Has he lost it?" The first guard asked his companion. The second guard shrugged.

Leo closed his eyes and pretended he wasn't there. He wasn't locked in a cell, he was at home. He wasn't surrounded by enemies, he was surrounded by his brothers being their playful selfs. He wasn't caged, he was free. He came to the lyrics of the song, and began to sing.

_Summer has come and passed_

_The innocent can never last_

_Wake me up when September ends . . ._

It felt good to sing. It felt so good to use his voice for something other than screaming. Instead of pained yells and groans bouncing of the walls, notes and melodies surrounded him.

_Like my fathers come to pass_

_Seven years have gone so fast_

_Wake me up when September ends . . ._

"What is he doing?" The first guard asked, sounding disgusted.

"Singing." The second guard said.

"I know that, idiot! But why?!"

_Here comes the rain again_

_Falling from the stars_

_Drenched in my pain again_

_Becoming who we are . . ._

Leo ignored the sound of the guards voice. He concentrated on the words and the notes they followed, throwing himself into his voice. He let the song speak for him, the fear and pain inside him echoed into the song. He sang his weariness, his pain, his sorrow. He sang of memories and feelings, of fear and dread, of desire for freedom. He sang his love for his brothers, his determination to keep them safe. While he never uttered a single word about it, he sang his soul. Locked behind the steel bars, Leo sang for an escape from them.

_. . . __Wake me up when September ends_

_Wake me up when September ends_

_Wake me up when September ends_

When he finished the song, Leo felt lighter. Singing had given him a taste of freedom. While he sang, he wasn't locked in a cell. While he sang, he was in control of himself, of what came next. Soon though, the silence began pressing back down on him. He was back in the cage, trapped once more. The silence itself was a chain, holding him down.

Leo thought of his brothers. God, he missed them. He missed them so much. He pictured their faces in his mind. Donnie's small smile, Mikey's grin, Raph's smirk. He longed to return to them, to leave this place, to lose the bonds of a prisoner and be free again.

So Leo cleared his throat and began to sing once more.

* * *

**Song : Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day**

**I have no idea why I picked that song, it just came to me, and the third verse fit the story line.**

**I know, the ending was bad. Sorry. I probably should have stopped earlier, but I wanted to try to get this part across. I hope I didn't foul up too bad.**

**Please review. It means a lot to me.**

**Have a good summer!**

**-Katana**


End file.
